


line without a hook

by Idk_hi_iguess



Category: The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman
Genre: Drunken Flirting, Euphemisms, Fade to Black, Flirting, Li Ming is a bit of a disaster, M/M, Miscommunication, Past Relationship(s), but silver kind of uses his archetype, flowery language and descriptions, i wrote this instead of an essay whoops, if that makes sense, ok so there are like some dubcon element - he definitely wants it and isnt uncomfortable, silver reads erotica! because of course he does, silver refers to li ming as "ice guy" at one point, there is no sex but like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29039496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idk_hi_iguess/pseuds/Idk_hi_iguess
Summary: after the events of the mortal word, Ao Shun sends Li Ming away to Vale's world and somehow or other he ends up on the doorstep of Lord Silver's townhouse.~Written based on a specific set of headcanons me and my girlfriend have about Ao Shun/Li Ming post the mortal word. Will probably try and update with the resolution to their misunderstanding.
Relationships: Li Ming/Lord Silver (The Invisible Library)
Comments: 2





	line without a hook

**Author's Note:**

> to explain the headcanons to anyone unfamiliar, after the death of Ren Shun at the hands of Ao Ji, So Shun becomes worried that that is how he and Li Ming will end up so he sends him away so he can have some time to think. However, Li Ming, still hurt from the death of his brother and the rejection from his King goes to seek distraction at Silver's townhouse.  
> This was another fic aided by and written for my marvellous girlfriend <3  
> title from that ricky montgomery song of the same name :)

Li Ming had always been a calculated man. He was not a dragon known for his recklessness and spontaneity, and had no plans to start now. 

Which is why he was surprised as anyone to find himself knocking on the tall front door to Lord Silver’s London Townhouse, an imposing building built into the corner of Belgrave Square. The neat lettering of the number “37” was painted on the pillars that flanked the door, the black of the paint as fresh and dark as if it had been painted that day. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise as the density of chaos in the air increased. 

The door knocker was an immaculately shined hand, almost unsettlingly realistic. The knock it produced echoed throughout the deserted square, and he cringed. But the residents of London’s most affluent square would be asleep for many hours yet, and he needn’t have worried. 

A butler, wearing a flawlessly pressed black suit opened the door, his face pursed. “How can I help you?” He sounded bored by the sight of him, and Li Ming drew himself up to his impressively tall height, painting his face with upper-class arrogance. 

“I am here for Lord Silver.”

“It is late, Lord Silver is not taking visitors at this time.” He went to shut the door, but Li Ming walked up the final step, so he towered over the butler. 

“You will make an exception. I am Lord Li Ming, he knows who I am.”

The way the butler’s eyes widened in respect when he announced his title was mildly satisfying, and he stopped trying to shut the door. “I will ask if he wants to see you. But he does not usually take visitors at this time.” He entered the warmth of the entrance hall, his shoes tapping on the shine of the tiles, a busy pattern of red, green and white marble. “Unless you are…” He trailed off as Li Ming struck him with an icy glare. 

“I am a  _ very  _ old friend.” Regretfully, he knew the implications of the statement. But they weren’t entirely inaccurate, and they served their purpose. The butler went pink, his stony attitude becoming flustered. You’d think with a man like Lord Silver as a master, you would get over any such stuffy society beliefs quickly. 

The man directed him to a small seat, patterned with narcissus flowers, and left to enlighten Lord Silver about the visitor. Li Ming sat down, looking about at the grand room. Two marbled green and gold pillars stood either side of the mahogany staircase, and a series of paintings covered the walls. Most were landscapes, and some were definitely not from this world. The purple in that one didn’t even exist as a paint here yet! 

He cast his eyes to the floor, and hoped Lord Silver would allow him to stay. He had no intentions of telling him just how desperate his situation was, but was loath to go anywhere else. A week of staying at the house occupied by Peregrine Vale and Kai had nearly snapped his final wit. If the nephew of his boss (was that all they were to each other now?) and his girlfriend weren’t flirting, then the detective was sure to be taking opium or working himself to hysteria with a case. Safe to say, finding even a moment to himself to process anything that had happened was impossible. He could not have stayed any longer. 

So it was that, and a dose of nostalgia, were what brought Li Ming to the awfully familiar entrance hall of Lord Silver’s townhouse. 

He became aware of the clack of the Butler’s shoes on the stairs and looked up, “Lord Li Ming. Lord Silver will take your call in the library.”

“Didn’t know he could read” he muttered under his breath as he stood.

“What was that, Sir?” It was clear from his tone of voice that he had heard perfectly, every word dripped with good humoured disapproval. 

“Oh, nothing. Lead the way.” 

“Of course, Sir.”

The stairs lead up to a first floor that was even more lavish and sumptuous than the entrance hall. “The library is just at the end of the hall,” he butler informed him and they drew closer to a door with a brass handle so shiny it reflected the gas lights that burned around them. 

The door opened silently out onto a well polished parquet flooring, which was dotted with patterned rugs and various seats. He felt chaos wash over him, and unconsciously shivered. No matter how much time you spent around it, it was still uncomfortable. The tall walls were lined with shelves that contained not only books, but potted plants, trinkets and he even thought he caught a glimpse of a small fish tank. 

Ao Shun would never allow such a disordered and chaotic library.

“Lord Li Ming?” The well-practised purr of lord Silver ripped his thoughts away from his king, “To what do I owe the pleasure” 

In no mood to explain himself, he instead turned his eyes to where the fae held his gaze from over a finger of whiskey, sprawled on a patterned chaise lounge. “Pour me a drink.” 

“Oh, so demanding,” He chuckled, smiling. “Pour one yourself, I am quite comfortable here,” 

The eye contact was an immense weight on him, but he held his gaze and he sat deliberately in a leather armchair not far from Silver. “I am the guest. Pour me a drink” He could feel the pull of the elaborate game of verbal chess the fae was playing. He wanted no part in it. 

The back of his neck felt as if it were being used as a pincushion for a particularly angry seamstress. 

“Indeed you are. And an honoured one at that,” Silver declared, leaping from his seat as if loaded by a spring. “Allow me to pour you a drink,” He announced the last words as if he was doing Li Ming a huge favour, but he refused to buy into it and snorted loudly. 

“That is what I have been encouraging from the moment I stepped into this little opium den of a library.” 

Silver pouted as he poured the whiskey into the crystalline glass. “We all deserve a little hedonism every now and again, don’t you think,” 

“I lead a busy life, Lord Silver, there is no time for indulgence.” He said bluntly, leaning forward to take the glass. 

Before he could retract his arm, the fae caught his wrist in his enchantingly long fingers. He leaned down slowly, and Li Ming tried to focus on anything but the gentle tickle of his breath on his neck. Where it fell he could feel the prickle of scale raise up. “Then why are you here?” 

He leaned back just enough that Li Ming could see his whole face. Up close it looked even more as if he had been carved from the finest marble. “I don’t have to explain myself to you,”

Sighing heavily, he let go of his wrist and sat back heavily in the chair closest to him. “You’re sat in my library, drinking my whiskey,” He took a sip of his drink, pausing, “I think it’s the least you could do,” 

Nervously, Li Ming took a sip. It was quite a bit bigger than he intended it, and struggled to retain his coughing as it burned down his throat like lava. The warmth dispersed and he relaxed deeper into the buttery leather of the chair. “I didn’t know you read.” He gestured at the books that surrounded them.

“Should I be taking that as an insult to my character?”

“To your intelligence, perhaps. If I truly wished to insult your character, I have a plethora of material.”

The fae tutted, his plush lips forming the sounds almost hypnotically. Absentmindedly, Li Ming leant forwards. 

“I read. Not the stuffy philosophers or essayists that make up much of your average toffs' shelves.” 

“Of course, I did always think you were more of the kind of reader to consume unhealthy amounts of torrid romance novellas and society gossip columns.”

The fae half bowed his head, smiling, “I have been known to stay up-to-date on whatever tragic love affair high society is obsessed with that week. But,” here he held up one of his fingers for emphasis, “there is a certain subset of literature that I am very well acquainted with indeed.”

He sat back in his chair and laughed easily. The sound was like the lick of flames into the open sky, or the gentle pouring of honey from a hive. Li Ming knew exactly what he was referring to. 

“And what would that be?”

He asked anyway.

“My  _ dear  _ Li Ming,” He began, and the endearment felt starkly different in contrast to the casual epithet that fell from the lips of his king with practised ease. It had always felt powerful, protective, safe. This felt exciting, new, a sound that flipped your stomach and made your heart race. “Erotica” 

He pronounced every syllable with a reverence that made Li Ming’s cheeks burn. Silver threw his head back and laughed. “Oh your Ao Shun has turned you into a dreadful prude! Why the lengths I went to to produce that reaction when we-” 

“Yes, well, that’s quite enough of that.” He told him sternly, willing his face to cool down. 

“ _You?_ Telling  _ me _ what to do? You have changed,”

“Would it kill you to be quiet for one minute?” He snapped, and Silver became incredibly still, then relaxed. 

“Yes.” He tilted his head, considering him, and Li Ming turned to the fireplace to escape his gaze. “Li Ming, you puzzle me.” 

“Yes, Well-”

“You come here, not a week since the business in Paris. Demand my alcohol and my company, all the while swinging wildly between snapping at me and flirting. And of course,” he chuckled and raised one eyebrow, “I’m all for rivalry and anger charged with a fizzle of tension. But please, you are not the kind of man to turn up at some old flames house impromptu. Why are you here?” 

He said the last words with such force that Li Ming guessed he must be charging them with chaos. He certainly felt the ghost of something deeply other grip him. 

When he started to speak he did not know if it was the chaos, the whiskey or the exhaustion which loosened his tongue. 

“My Lord has, ah, sent me away. I was given no explanation as to why.” He must be imagining the shiver of sympathy that was knitted into Silvers eyebrows. “Perhaps he no longer trusts me? Or maybe I am simply no longer of use to him.” Every word felt like such an enormous effort, choosing them carefully and not letting his anger run away with him. “And now I am stuck here until he invites me back to court. Stuck here, with chaos weeping from the cracks in the walls, captured in the air particles I am breathing and woven into the very fabrics I wear on my back. Stuck here with those damned wolves running below every street, stuck here with-”

“Me?” Silver asked, sighing. He sat back nonchalantly and if Li Ming didn’t know better he would have assumed that the shadow of upset and hurt stalked his face. But he knew as well as any dragon that Fae didn’t have feelings you could hurt, at least not real ones. Not ones outside of the archetype they existed in, a poor parody of emotion befitting their disposition. 

He felt bad anyway. 

“Silver… no. As much as it  _ pains _ me to admit,” He shot a rueful grin at where Silver was sat, “Your company is currently doing me the world of good, even if it doesn’t seem that way." 

He thought he saw the ghost of a genuine smile pass across his face, before it was replaced by the flirtatious rogue of a smirk he usually sported. 

“Ah! So you came here to get absolutely trash faced with the one man you know will piss your boss off the most. Good god, ice guy, I never thought you’d have the-”

“Not exactly!” He cut him off, trying to keep a straight face but the buzzing of alcohol through his system made his face dissolve into a reluctant smile. 

“Well, if you  _ were  _ here to piss of your boss-”

“Which I’m not,”

“Which you are not. But, say you  _ were, _ ” His eyes glinted with mischief, “I know exactly what would do it,”

This time, Li Ming didn’t resist the narcotic charm that pulled them closer together. The air was taut with chaos so rigid you could cut it with a knife and he took pleasure in the intimate feeling of wrong-ness that overtook him. “I am  _ dying  _ to hear any ideas you may have?” 

The fae placed his glass down with deliberate care, before reaching his thumb up to his mouth and sucking a stray drop of whiskey off of it. He placed a hand on his thigh and the touch was met by his cells screaming in unison at the chaos. But one glance at the delicate lilac of Silver’s eyes and he melted. 

His free hand reached up and cupped his side of his face, a pleasant warmth beside the pale chill of his skin. He leaned up unconsciously, Silver’s face, as beautiful and inhuman in that moment as if he had been carved from marble. 

He wanted every inch of himself to feel the touch of chaos, he wanted to return the palace reeking of it. He wanted it embedded beneath every scale, wanted the king’s nose to wrinkle with displeasure when he walked in. He wanted him to _know._

So he pushed closer and let the Fae kiss him. 


End file.
